Left Her Stranded
by amberdowny
Summary: While trapped together at 18141 E. Addison, Drake and Josh talk. Takes place during "Drake & Josh Go Hollywood"


Title: Left Her Stranded

Author: SP

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider and whoever else own Drake & Josh. The title is lyrics from Drake Bell's "Hollywood Girl".

Rating: K+

Pairing: kinda gen

Word Count: 1163

Summary: While trapped together at 18141 E. Addison, Drake and Josh talk.  
Author's Notes: This takes place during that mini-montage--the one the whole fandom has capped and iconed? I've wanted to write this since the first time I saw Go Hollywood in its entirety.

For awhile, Drake and Josh both sat on the floor, lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Drake spoke. "What's that thing?"

Josh looked behind him to where Drake was pointing. "I think it's an old shop-vac," he answered. "Like a vacuum for sawdust and stuff. Does it really matter?"

Drake shrugged. "No. I was just curious. Man, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Josh said quietly. "I don't see any way out of here. Not with all those goons out there."

"Well, there must be some way!"

Josh got to his feet and started pacing. "We can't call for help, they took our phones. The door's locked, and even if it wasn't, they'd be all over us the minute we stepped foot out of here. Face it; we're stuck here until they let us out. _If_ they let us out."

"They will," Drake said, sounding a lot more confident than he felt.

"Why would they? They got what they needed from us. Now all we are is in the way. They probably know we'd run straight to the cops if they let us out."

Drake shook his head. "But we don't even know what's going on. There's nothing to tell the cops about."

"I don't know, I think kidnap is enough to get the police interested!" Josh said sarcastically.

Drake curled one leg towards himself. "Yeah, I guess."

Josh sighed and fell silent, still pacing. He tried to think of some way to get out of this, some way they hadn't thought of yet. Maybe they could bargain with the criminals? Or somehow talk themselves out of the mess they were in? But he'd already tried that, and it had had no effect. They just got tossed, and locked, into the corner.

Josh sat down on an old workbench and put his head in his hands. He had nothing.

"This is all _your_ fault," Drake said suddenly.

Josh's head snapped up. "Why are you blaming _me_? You're the one who just _had_ to go out and get a corndog, so we were late to the airport and sent Megan off to LA instead of Denver!"

"So?" Drake replied defensively, standing up. "_You_ just _had_ to play hero and steal that guy's G-O back, so they ended up chasing us and locking us in here! If you had just minded your own business, we _wouldn't_ be here."

Josh stood up too, suddenly shifting the dynamic. Now he was the one looking down. "I can't believe you. This isn't my fault."

"Yes, it is. And you know what? This is just proof that I was way better off before Mom married Walter and _you_ came into my life." With that, Drake spun around and sat on the floor again, Indian style, facing away from his brother.

Stunned and hurt, Josh also sank onto the floor, leaning against the wall beside the shop-vac. Maybe Drake was right, and it _was_ his fault.

--

About half-an-hour later, neither of them had spoken a word. Drake was starting to feel bad about what he'd said. He didn't really think he was better off without Josh. Actually, a lot of things had gotten better because of Josh. And without Josh, he wouldn't be scheduled to appear on TRL the next day. And maybe it wasn't Josh's fault that they were here, or at least, not entirely Josh's fault. Maybe Josh had a point, maybe he should have been on time.

Drake lifted his head from where it rested on his hand and snuck a peek at Josh over his shoulder. He turned back around and shook his head. This was dumb. They shouldn't argue when they were all they had.

Drake turned his whole body around and called softly, "Josh?"

Josh moved his arm off the shop-vac and leaned forward. "Yeah?"

"Look man, I'm sorry."

"Me too," Josh replied, with some relief.

"I guess…I'm just scared and kind of mad, and I wanted to blame someone."

Josh sighed. "I know. Me too. But we shouldn't fight, not now."

Drake nodded. "Right. We need to work together to get out of this."

Josh nodded too. "Yeah."

Drake crawled across the floor and sat beside Josh, Indian-style again, leaning against the shop-vac. "Josh, you know…I don't actually think I was better off before you."

"Really?" Josh asked, in a small voice.

"Really. I mean…you're pretty cool to have for a brother. And you've helped me out of so many tight spots, I don't know what I would have done if you weren't there. And um, oh yeah, you got me on TRL!"

Josh grinned. "That wins me some points, huh?"

"Totally," Drake agreed. "And um, it's not your fault that this happened."

Josh sighed. "Yeah, it kind of is."

"Then it's kind of my fault too," Drake replied. "Do you think…honestly…that we'll get out of here?"

Josh sighed again. "Honestly, I don't have any idea."

Drake looked like he was about to cry. "Josh--"

Josh inched closer, putting his arm over the shop-vac and around Drake's shoulders. He pulled his brother into a sideways one-armed hug. "I know."

Drake cuddled closer to Josh, leaning his back against Josh's chest and his head on Josh's shoulder. "I hate this," he murmured.

"I know," Josh said again, tilting his head so it rested against Drake's. "But we…we'll look for a way out of here again in a little while. And maybe we'll overhear something helpful. We're not going to give up."

"'Kay," Drake answered. He closed his eyes. He was really tired.

--

The next thing he knew, Josh was shaking his shoulder gently. "Drake," he whispered, "Drake, we have to move."

"Mmph. Why?" Drake mumbled back.

"My arm is asleep. Let's stretch out on the floor." Josh pushed at Drake's shoulder again, a little harder.

Finally, Drake pulled away and Josh shook his arm. "Ow. Okay, here, lay down."

Drake did, bending his knees toward his chest and pillowing his head on his hands. He fell asleep again almost immediately.

Josh carefully lay down behind Drake, stretching one arm out to cushion his head and wrapping the other one around Drake's waist. For some reason, holding Drake simultaneously comforted him and made him feel like he was comforting Drake. Maybe he was.

He yawned and joined Drake in slumber.

--

Hours later, both boys started to stir and wake up. Drake shifted in Josh's hold, rolled to face him, and they both opened their eyes and realized what was going on.

Immediately, they scrambled to their feet, trying to act like they hadn't just been spooning on the floor.

"Uh, wh-wh-what time is it?" Drake asked quickly.

One hand on his head, Josh checked his watch. "Two in the morning. Two _in_ the morning," he answered. Then, "Duh," he added, as though they always woke up at that hour, trapped in small spaces and cuddling. As if that wasn't weird.

And the thing was, it kind of wasn't.

END


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